


Once among the Stars

by ConfessionForAnotherTime (MagpieCrimes)



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-15
Updated: 2020-02-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:54:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22740550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagpieCrimes/pseuds/ConfessionForAnotherTime
Summary: Scribs made me love him and then I shipped it.
Relationships: Original Character(s)/Original Character(s)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 6





	Once among the Stars

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ScribbleBoxFox](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScribbleBoxFox/gifts).



_Ooooooo, check out that._ Sampson’s eyes avoided his arm. Grey’s voice echoed in his head. It lingered under his skin, refusing to let him relax. 

“Please?” she asked him, brushing her bangs out of her face and reaching out to grab one of his hands. “I don’t think you should be alone right now.” Sampson bit his lip, checking the hallway for any others that might be looking before letting her in. In the months that followed the beginning of their relationship, Lucky had kept a small bag in the corner of his room. Even with only a few weeks had gone by since she first stayed in his room, she still wanted to be prepared. A night with him, two in her own bed while he was on a mission. “I can see it in your eyes. You don’t want to be alone either.”

“I---I… okay.” He stepped back in the doorway, tensing when she slowly wound arn arms around his waist, pressing herself against him once the door had been shut. 

“What can I do to help?”

He shook his head. “It’s fine. Tired though. Sleep would help.”

The two of them had been sleeping in the comfort of one another for months now, with him finally relaxing around her enough to invite her to stay with him overnight. She had fallen asleep with his head laid on her chest, arms circling her waist as she ran her fingers through his hair. Lucky fell asleep long after Sampson did, slipping out of bed to use the restroom. The change was gradual. Nothing had happened all at once with the two of them. She knew she didn’t really belong there. It didn’t stop her from being drawn to him in a way she couldn’t describe. And yet here she was, slipping into the realm of domesticity with her CO, under the nose of their boss. 

Even in his worst sleep, even knowing what he was capable of, of what he had done, Lucky still saw the best in him. Having been growing closer, seeing those pieces of Sampson no one else knew, meeting *Jay* instead of the hardened exterior he had been forced to adopt… Lucky got to experience pieces of Sampson that he would think had long since died. 

Lucky slipped back into bed, turning over, curling herself into Sampson’s chest. The familiar hum kept her up less than it had the first night, having become a noise of comfort more than anything. 

_I just want you to be careful. I.. if you’re going to sleep here, you need to know some things._

As she had started to fall back asleep, he began to stir beside her. 

“Shhhh, Jay, mmmm-- sleepy time,” she said quietly, eyes still closed as her hand came up to rest against his chest. He went tense under her touch, though she didn’t register it, only waking from her sleep when she managed to roll out of bed. Lucky choked back a yelp at her knee connecting with the floor, sending pain shooting up her thigh. “---- _fuck,”_ she ground out.

Eyes up at the edge of the bed, it dawned on her what had happened. Fucking clumsy ass had rolled out of bed. 

Sampson’s panic started to swell, overtaking her thoughts as she reached out to try to calm him. 

“Lucky, shit. I--I’m sorry.” She’s bleeding. She’s bleeding and it’s your fucking fault. Good job asshole. “I didn’t mean to.” Sampson retracted the claws, not even realizing she hadn’t noticed she was bleeding just yet. I have to go. I can’t stay. She can’t stay. No. 

He didn’t register her asking him to come back, or how he managed to pull his undersuit and armor on in time it took him to get out of the base. She’s going to be done with me. I warned her. I told her this would happen. I should have kept myself away from her. I ruin every good thing I touch.

With his mind going faster than he could process, his gut churning, chest heated to the point of burning, why should he believe that she could---- shit.

He could imagine how she would react, refusing to even look at him. Refusing to--- it had been too good to be true huh? You find something good and you still managed to fuck it up, Jay. Good job. Good fucking job. His breath hitched in his throat, chest tight as if his lungs were trying to strangle him from the inside. _This is on me. I hurt her and now she hates me._

“Shut up!” he yelled to no one, tearing his helmet off. He could only hear the echo of how badly he had fucked up with the first good thing to come along since---he couldn’t remember. Everything lately had just been pain and heat and explosions and more pain that having her--- “Fuck!”

Back at the base, Lucky passed Striker, initially ignoring the doubled back steps as she pushed past him. 

“Lucky?” The fresh scratches across her chest, exposed from the cut of her jumpsuit. 

“I’m fine.” He caught her hand, pulling her back to look at him. Striker towered over her, and she looked away. “I told you I’m fine.”

“At least get some ice for your knee.”

“That’s where I’m going. I got it, Sir.” She turned to continue on her way, limping past his grasp. 

\---

Firmly nestled in her hideaway under the motor pool floor, she let herself begin to process what had happened. _It’s stupid, but I have night terrors._ The words were clear as day. She knew this could---would happen, and she was still unprepared for what to do. She ran her fingers over the red, raised marks on her chest. She had already cleaned the blood off, but after slipping out of her jumpsuit to tend her knee, now a brilliant shade of purple from where her full weight had come down off it, and it had started to pulse angrily. _I usually just tense up, but don’t try to wake me. It tends to get… violent._ She searched for a pair of sweats that she had squirreled away under the floor, turning one of the maintenance tunnels into her own private getaway. It hadn’t been hard to smuggle a mattress down there from the cot that she repurposed, using the rest of it to create shelves. No one asked where she would go at night, so this wouldn’t be out of the ordinary. She wouldn’t be missed. She pulled the sweats on, hiking the elastic ankle up to mid thigh. 

“I hope it’s not broken again.” Lucky hissed as the ice hit her skin, pulling some of the heat and the throb away. She turned to her side, leaving the ice pooled under her knee. She could sleep off the worst of it, if she had a shirt other than his reminding her of what she was missing. 

The morning did little to help the situation. Even through the early morning air, he wasn’t showing up on her tracker when she bothered to put her armor on for once, even if it was purely from a ‘this can also function as a brace for my knee’ standpoint. She sighed as the day wore on, busying herself with warthog repairs, tinkering and her own pet project of making a pair of mongoose to ride around. The day started to blend together.

Lucky worked far into the night, pausing when the throb in her knee forced her to stop and flop back down onto her mattress under the motor pool. One day blurred into two and then two into three, leaving her focused entirely on the task at hand, at not what she wanted to be doing. 

Gritting her teeth, she pulled her greaves off and propped the leg up, icing it once she struggled enough to shimmy out of her undersuit. 

Throwing herself into her work to avoid problems wasn’t something she had done since… long before she became a mercenary. Well, kinda. Starting the morning with writing a note to Jay to only have it left open on read hit her differently than it would have if she hadn’t spent the last three days worrying about him. Worrying about them. Now? Now she had to wonder if he would come back to her at all. 

“Lucky?” 

She nearly jumped out of her skin. Above her stood Striker, arms folded. 

“The cliff.”

She nodded. “Thanks.”

\---

She could guess that Striker had something to do with Jay staying in one spot until she arrived, but that didn’t stop the knot in her stomach from growing larger with each step. Like all of this, she was in uncharted territory. Opening herself up to someone else. Knowing either of them could die at any moment? It wasn’t a time to shove away or have regrets. Now was about living in the moment. They didn’t have time to live for the future just yet. 

“Jay?” she called out as she approached the flat rock near the cliff edge. The single word made his whole body language shift, tense, on edge. 

“Jay, please don’t go.”

He turned around to face her and even without seeing his face, she could read the expression on his face like he was inches from her. 

"I know it wasn't on purpose though. _You_ wouldn't hurt me. This sounds so fucking emo, but when you left? You took the light out of my life. Please. Jamison. Don't shut me out. I need _you_." Tears brimmed her eyes, threatening to spill over. She took a step forward, desperate to end the separation that had grown even in the few short days since...

"But I _did_ hurt you! And I could do it again. I don't....I-I can't..." Sampson took a step back, voice shaking. “Lucky--- d-don’t.”

“You, right now? You wouldn't.” Lucky took another step forward. “The shit that happened to you to make those nightmares come in the first place? That's not you. That's not the Jamison I fucking _love_ , okay.” Her voice broke at the admission, making her feel even smaller than usual with him towering over her. “I wanted a better time to tell you, but this? Us? All of it? I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing, but I just know I _can’t_ do it without you.”

Lucky took another step toward him, closing in enough to hug him if she knew he wouldn’t bolt if she tried to move fast enough. “He may be part of you but I have been crying every night because I just want to _talk_ with you." Having finally closed the distance between the two of them, she reached out to touch his arm despite the armor. "And you know what? If it happens again? It would still hurt less than you leaving."

A strangled sob died on his microphone, hitting her in the chest harder than a fist. Lucky bit her lip, pleading with red-rimmed eyes. 

"How could you _ever_ love something like _me?_ I'm...I--" He looked away from her, wrapping his arms around himself. "I'm _sorry."_

Lucky circled his waist with her arms, pulling him in so she could meld herself against him. “I’m sorry too.” She couldn’t bring herself to look up at him again now that the tears were flowing freely. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do more to help you, and I’m sorry for not making it clear that I don’t want anyone else. Even if it hurts and it’s going to suck, I want you, Jay. But I won’t ever be sorry for wanting to have you in my life. Not a week ago, not when you left. Not even now. I knew this was going to be hard from the beginning. And if you let me, this doesn’t have to be the end either.” Lucky held tight around him, finally pulling back to look him right in the visor. “So, with that said, can we at least try? I don’t expect anything to be perfect in the slightest.”

He nodded slowly. 

“Because I don’t want to go anywhere unless you’re here too.” Lucky tightened her grip on him. “Okay?” 

He hugged her back in turn, not yet trusting his voice. 

“Good enough for me.”

  
  
  
  



End file.
